US producer Casey Silver has confirmed that the world premiere of martial arts action adventure The Forbidden Kingdom will take place in Beijing on April 16. The film will open in the US two days later and in China on April 24.

Silver was in Hong Kong to promote the $75m film, which features the first on-screen pairing of Jet Li and Jackie Chan, at a press conference at Filmart yesterday.

Directed by Robert Minkoff, the kung-fu extravaganza was filmed at various locations in China, including Hengdian World Studios, last year. Beijing-based Huayi Brothers is the Chinese co-production partner and will handle the Chinese release. Emperor Motion Pictures will handle distribution in Hong Kong.

Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company will co-release the film in the US and are also splitting distribution in select international territories while Relativity Media is handling sales in other territories.

A consortium of three South Korean effects houses - Macrograph Inc, Digital Tetra Inc (DTI) and Footage - was assembled specifically to work on the big-budget action epic.

The cast also includes Michael Angarano, Collin Chou and Chinese actresses Liu Yifei and Li Bingbing.

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